$167M for university construction in Texas sought

AUSTIN -- The Texas House and Senate appear to have worked out their differences and want Gov. Rick Perry to add funding for university construction to the agenda for the special session that ends this month -- an issue that could mean $167 million for university buildings in El Paso.

Perry's office on Wednesday seemed willing to consider the matter.

An El Paso lawmaker said it would be a way for Perry to end what may be his last legislative session as governor on a note of bipartisan, bicameral agreement. Debate over an abortion bill reached a level of bitterness not seen in the Capitol in decades, some observers said.

"It might be a good note to go out on," said state Rep. Marisa Márquez, D-El Paso, referring to Perry's plans not to seek re-election next year.

An earlier version of the university-construction bill died in the regular legislative session that ended in May amid a dispute between the House and Senate.

The House didn't want to compromise on a bill that spent less than the $2.7 billion it wanted to spend on "tuition-revenue" bonds, so it refused to appoint members to a House-Senate conference committee that would have worked out differences.

The bonds are secured with tuition revenue, but they're repaid from state funds. Under the bill passed by the House Appropriations Committee, the University of Texas at El Paso would get $88 million for a new building and the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center at El Paso would get $79.3 million, said Márquez, a member of the committee.

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El Paso, like the rest of Texas, has been growing and needs new university buildings, Senate Higher Education Committee Chairman Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, said Wednesday.

The Legislature hasn't passed tuition revenue bonds since 2006.

"It should have been done in regular session," Seliger said.

As governor, Perry has the power to call special sessions and to set the agenda for the legislation to be considered.

The House and Senate last week passed a controversial abortion bill the governor wanted and now they're working on a transportation-funding bill and legislation to fix sentencing guidelines for 17-year-olds charged with capital murder.

When those are complete, Seliger wants the governor to turn to money for university construction.

"There's very, very broad agreement in the House and Senate on" tuition-revenue bonds, Seliger said.

He said they all had agreed on House Bill 5, the version passed last week by the House Appropriations Committee.

Márquez said the bill's sponsor, state Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, spent less than five minutes presenting it before the committee voted 18-0 to adopt it.

She said she and the others considered taking the vote standing up to send a message to Perry to put the issue on the legislative agenda.

"Right now we are focused on completing the work that is currently on the call," Perry's spokesman, Josh Havens, said in an email Wednesday. "When that's finished we can have the conversation on if anything new needs to be added."

Perry's office and that of Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst didn't immediately respond Wednesday to questions about the issue.

But after several bruising weeks in the Capitol, lawmakers seem eager to do something most can agree on.

"The House is ready to move quickly on the (tuition-revenue bond) issue if the governor adds it to the call of this special session," Jason Embry, spokesman for House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, said in an email.

Marty Schladen may be reached at mschladen@elpasotimes.com; 512-546-6127.